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Thomas Percy, churchman and Bishop of Dromore from 1782 to 1798, became one
of the leading scholars on literary and antiquarian matters. He edited
a number of publications, including translations from Chinese,
analysis of Hebrew scripture, and an aborted collection of Spanish songs
on Moorish subjects. However, the work that made his name was the publication of a manuscript which he discovered (c. 1753) in the house of his
friend Humphrey Pitt. The maids were using its leaves to light the
fire. The manuscript contained versions of traditional ballads, probably
compiled in the mid-17th century. Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other
Pieces of Our Earlier Poets (Chiefly of the Lyric Kind) Together with
Some Few of Later Date was published by the bookseller Robert
Dodsley in 1765 and was an immediate success, with a fourth edition
published in 1794. Reliques was instrumental in
encouraging the collection and study of English ballads. But poets
such as William Wordsworth, Walter Scott, and S. T. Coleridge also
cited Percy’s work as a source of inspiration for their fiction.For a
general overview, see Kathryn Sutherland, “The Native Poet:
The Influence of Percy’s Minstrel from Beattie to
Wordsworth”, Review of English Studies 33
(1982): 414–33.

The antiquary Joseph Ritson attacked Percy for his editorial practices.
Although Percy did not fake anything, he certainly interfered with the
ballads by rewriting, conflating, and adding to them. This was
revealed when the manuscript from which he worked was published in full by
J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall as Percy’s
Folio MS (1867). After his preferment as bishop, Percy increasingly
dissociated himself from the role of pioneer in the study of
vernacular antiquities.

Two years before the first edition of Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry (1765), Percy published
Five Pieces of Runic Poetry Translated from the Islandic
Language (1763). Like all seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
British translators of Old Norse poetry, Percy relied on Latin
intermediaries. But to check the translations, Percy enlisted the help
of Anglo-Saxon and Gothic scholar Edward Lye (1694–1767). In
Five Pieces, “The Death Song of Ragnar
Lodbrog” (today often referred to as
Krákumál or the Song of Kraka) was
translated in full for the first time. Since Ragnar was seen to
epitomize the heroic and superstitious attitudes of the Gothic forefathers,
it became the Old Norse text most frequently translated, abstracted
and referred to in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The
principal source of transmission of the poem was the Danish antiquary Ole
Worm (Lat. Olaus Wormius), who printed it in Latin translation, with a
transcription into runes, in his
[Runer] seu Danica literatura antiquissima (1636, rev.
1651). The misapprehensions that marred this Latin version determined the interpretation of the practices and belief of Germanic ancestors, especially in regard to the mistranslation that makes the speaker look forward to carousing with drinking vessels made of human skulls (see stanza VIII below).

The speaker in the poem is the semi-legendary Scandinavian king, Ragnar
Lodbrog (Ragnarr Loðbrók), who
recalls his warrior feats from a pit of poisonous snakes, into which he has
been thrown by his enemy, King Ella of Northumberland. In the course
of the first twenty-one stanzas, Ragnar recounts his many battles. The
remainder of the poem is spoken in the poetic present, as he is
succumbing to the effects of venom. With undaunted confidence, Ragnar
expresses his anticipation of joining other fallen heroes in
Odin’s Valhalla, and he sets out the hope that his sons will
avenge his murder.

The poem is a skaldic song (i.e. it belongs to a courtly tradition), written
in a variation of the poetic metre dróttkvæði. The stanzas were transmitted in
connection with Ragnars saga loðbrókar,
which it follows in a vellum from around 1400.

In the text below, Percy’s original notes to the poem have been
preserved, since some of these are indicative of his attempts to
provide a “readable” version for an English public. This is
especially a case of rewriting the kennings,
which require knowledge of Norse mythology in order to make sense.
Percy displays a degree of scholarly sincerity as he frequently marks passages that were difficult to understand with either triple or,
when really problematic, quadruple asterisks (as it can be seen in
several lines below). However, a great number of modifications of the
original and unwarranted additions are passed over in silence.

It was the antiquary James Johnstone who produced the most philologically
accurate edition of the eighteenth century. Johnstone had the aid of
the distinguished Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson
Thorkelin, who was National Archivist in Copenhagen. In the notes to the
poem, he provides an overview of the allusions to Baltic geography and
the region of Britain. Relevant information from Johnstone’s
work is extracted below for each of Percy’s stanzas. (The
interpretation of some of the place names in the original remains a
matter of dispute.)

I. Gothland. Sweden.II. “Describes an engagement in the Straits of
Eyra, now the Sound near
Elsinore [Denmark]”III. “An Expedition to Duina a river in Livonia”.IV. “ Helsing was a
district of Sweden”.V. –VI. “Scarpa-sceria i.e. the sharp rocks,
probably Scarpey near Spangaheidi, in Norway, the scene
of many of Regner’s
adventures”.VII. “ Indyriis is thought
to be the Inderö isles in the bay of Drontheim [Norway]”.VIII. Uppsala. SwedenIX. “Burgundar-holm, now
Bornholm, an island in the Baltic”.X. “ Flemingia-veldi,
included the antient Belgium, now Low-countries”.XI. “All the rest of the poem relates to Regner’s expeditions round the British isles. Engla-nes
means English cape, probably on the coast of
Kent …”.XII. “ Bartha-firthi seems
to have been the mouth of the Tay, near Perth [Scotland]”.XIII. “ Hedninga bay is
supposed to have been in the Orkneys”.XIV. Northumberland.XV. The Hebrides.XVI. “Regner makes an
expedition to Ireland”.XVII. –XVIII. Isle of Sky.XIX. Hebrides.XX. “Lindiseyri is by some
thought to be Lindisnes in Norway, but, as the Irish are mentioned,
it is more probably Leins-tir in Ireland”.XXI. “Records a battle, at the mouth of a river
in Anglesey …”.Source: Lodbrokar-Quida; or the Death Song of Lodbrog,
Now First Correctly Printed from Various Manuscripts,
ed. James Johnstone (Copenhagen, 1782),
95–111.

***

The Dying Ode of Regner Lodbrog (1763)

Introduction

King Regner Lodbrog was a celebrated Poet, Warrior, and (what was the
same thing in those ages) Pirate; who reigned in Denmark, about
the beginning of the ninth century. After many warlike expeditions
by sea and land, he at length met with bad fortune. He was taken in
battle by his adversary Ella king of Northumberland. War in those
rude ages was carried on with the fame inhumanity, as it is now
among the savages of North-America: their prisoners were only reserved
to be put to death with torture. Regner was accordingly thrown
into a dungeon to be stung to death by serpents. While he was
dying he composed this song, wherein he records all the valiant
atchievements of his life, and threatens Ella with vengeance;
which history informs us was afterwards executed by the sons of
Regner.
This revenge, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian histories
tell us, took place when warriors, who are said to be
Ragnar’s sons, invaded northeast England in
867.

It is, after all, conjectured that Regner himself only composed a few
stanzas of this poem, and that the rest were added by his Scald or poet-laureat, whose business it was to add
to the solemnities of his funeral by singing some poem in his
praise. L’Edda par Chev. Mallet, p. 150

This piece is translated from the Islandic original published by Olaus
Wormius in his Literatura Runica Hafniæ
4to.1631.— Ibidem, 2. Edit. Fol.
1651.

N. B. Thora, mentioned in the first stanza, was daughter of some little
Gothic prince, whose palace was infested by a large serpent; he
offered his daughter in marriage to any one that would kill the
monster and set her free. Regner accomplished the atchievement and
acquired the name of Lod-brog,
which signifies ROUGH or HAIRY-BREECHES, because he cloathed
himself all over in rough or hairy skins before he made the
attack. [Vide Saxon Gram. pag. 152, 153.]
—This is the poetical account of this adventure: but
history informs us that Thora was kept prisoner by one of her
father’s vassals, whose name was Orme
or Serpent, and that it was from this man
that Regner delivered her, clad in the aforesaid shaggy armour.
But he himself chuses to commemorate it in the most poetical manner.

Vide Chev. Mallet Introd. a L ’Hist. de Dannemarc. pag.201.

[I]

We fought with swords: *** when in Gothland I slew an enormous serpent:
my reward was the beauteous Thora. Thence I was deemed a man: they
called me Lodbrog from that slaughter.*** I thrust the monster
through with my spear, with the steel productive of splendid
rewards.
The first stanza, about the victory over a
supernatural creature, is strangely out of sync with the
descriptions of ordinary, human battles enumerated in the
rest of the poem. It was likely introduced as part of a
different tradition associated with Ragnar. In
Percy’s essay “On Ancient Metrical Romances
&c”, prefixed to the third volume of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,
Percy used Ragnar’s one-off knightly achievement in this
stanza as evidence of English metrical romances being
founded on Norse tradition. He says this despite the fact that
the poem does not otherwise refer to Ragnar in connection
with any romantic endeavours.

[II]

We fought with swords: I was very young, when towards the East, in the
straights of Eirar, we gained rivers of blood† Literally “Rivers of
wounds.”—By the yellow-footed fowl is meant
the eagle. for the ravenous wolf: ample food for the
yellow-footed fowl. There the hard iron sung upon the lofty
helmets. The whole ocean was one wound. The raven waded in the blood of
the slain.

[III]

We fought with swords: we lifted high our lances; when I had numbered
twenty years, and every where acquired great renown. We conquered
eight barons at the mouth of the Danube. We procured ample
entertainment for the eagle in that slaughter. Bloody sweat fell in the
ocean of wounds. A host of men there lost their lives.

[IV]

We fought with swords: we enjoyed the fight, when we sent the inhabitants
of Helsing to the habitation of the gods† Literally, “to the hall of
Odin.”. We failed up the Vistula. Then the
sword acquired spoils: the whole ocean was one wound: the earth
grew red with reeking gore: the sword grinned at the coats of mail: the
sword cleft the shields asunder.

[V]

We fought with swords: I well remember that no one fled that day in the
battle before in the ships HerauderRagnar’s
father-in-law. fell. There does not a fairer warrior
divide the ocean with his vessels. *** This prince ever brought to
the battle a gallant heart.

[VI]

We fought with swords: the army cast away their shields. Then flew the
spear to the breasts of the warriors. The sword in the fight cut
the very rocks: the shield was all besmeared with blood, before
king Rafno fell, our foe. The warm sweat run down from the heads on the
coats of mail.

[VII]

We fought with swords, before the isles of Indir. We gave ample prey for
the ravens to rend in pieces: a banquet for the wild beasts that
feed on flesh. At that time all were valiant: it were difficult to
single out any one. At the rising of the sun, I saw the lances pierce:
the bows darted the arrows from them.

[VIII]

We fought with swords: loud was the din† Din is the
word in the Islandic original. Dinn greniudu
brottan.
This editorial note on the
similarity between the Norse dinn
and the English din appears to give
no essential information to the reader apart from
highlighting the closeness of Percy’s translation
to the original. It may also serve to back up his
claim in the preface to Five
Pieces, in which he speaks of the near affinity
between Norse and Anglo-Saxon tradition, referring
to Icelandic as a “sister dialect” of
English. However, the annotation is based on a
misreading. Percy’s source, Worm’s
Literatura runica, had Hett greniudu hrottar. This is also
how the line is rendered in the transcript of the
Icelandic original which Percy included in the appendix
to his anthology. of arms; before
king Eistin fell in the field. Thence, enriched with golden
spoils, we marched to fight in the land of Vals. There the sword cut the
painted shields.†† Literally, “the paintings of the
shields.” In the meeting of helmets, the blood
ran from the wounds: it ran down from the cloven sculls of
men.

[IX]

We fought with swords, before Boring-holmi. We held bloody shields: we
stained our spears. Showers of arrows brake the shield in pieces.
The bow sent forth the glittering steel. Volnir fell in the
conflict, than whom there was not a greater king. Wide on the shores lay
the scattered dead: the wolves rejoiced over their prey.

[X]

We fought with swords, in the Flemings land: the battle widely raged
before king Freyr fell therein. The blue steel all reeking with
blood fell at length upon the golden mail. Many a virgin bewailed the
laughter of that morning. The beasts of prey had ample spoil.

[XI]

We fought with swords, before Ainglanes. There saw I thousands lie dead
in the ships: we failed to the battle for six days before the army
fell. There we celebrated a mass of weapons† This is intended for a
sneer on the Christian religion, which tho’ it had not
gained any footing in the northern nations, when this Ode
was written, was not wholly unknown to them. Their piratical
expeditions into the southern countries had given them
some notion of it, but by no means a favourable one: they
considered it as the religion of cowards, because it would
have corrected their savage manners.. At rising of
the sun Valdiofur fell before our swords.

[XII]

We fought with swords, at Bardafyrda. A mower of blood rained from our
weapons. Headlong fell the palid corpse a prey for the hawks. The
bow gave a twanging found. The blade sharply bit the coats of
mail: it bit the helmet in the fight. The arrow sharp with poison and
all besprinkled with bloody sweat ran to the wound.

[XIII]

We fought with swords, before the bay of Hiadning. We held aloft magic
shields in the play of battle. Then might you see men, who rent
shields with their swords. The helmets were mattered in the murmur
of the warriors. The pleasure of that day was like having a fair virgin
placed beside one in the bed.The apparent continuity
between Ragnar’s bellicosity and his amatory sentiments
arrested eighteenth-century commentators. This was a
result of a mistranslation in Worm’s edition of a Norse
negation, which unfortunately made it appear as a simile
with positive implications here, as well as in stanzas 14 and
18. In fact, the Norse –at suffix in
the original (vasat) makes the
sentences negative (“it was not as”). What was
created was the picture of a warrior whose thoughts of war
were imbued with romance, whereas, in the original, the
construction is used to set up a contrast between fighting
on the battlefield and the comfort in domestic and erotic idyll.
It was not before 1806, in William Herbert’s Select Icelandic Poetry that this mistake
was corrected by an English translator.

[XIV]

We fought with swords, in the Northumbrian land. A furious storm
descended on the shields: many a lifeless body fell to the earth.
It was about the time of the morning, when the foe was compelled to fly
in the battle. There the sword sharply bit the polished helmet.
The pleasure of that day was like killing a young widow at the
highest feat of the table.

[XV]

We fought with swords, in the isles of the south. There Herthiose proved
victorious: there died many of our valiant warriors. In the mower
of arms Rogvaldur fell: I lost my son. In the play of arms came
the deadly spear: his lofty crest was dyed with gore. The birds of prey
bewailed his fall: they loft him that prepared them banquets.

[XVI]

We fought with swords, in the Irish plains. The bodies of the warriors
lay intermingled. The hawk rejoiced at the play of swords. The
Irish king did not act the part of the eagle***. Great was the conflict
of sword and shield. King Marstan was killed in the bay: he was
given a prey to the hungry ravens.

[XVII]

We fought with swords: the spear resounded: the banners shone† Or more properly
“reflected the sunshine up on the coat of
mail.” upon the coats of mail. I saw many
a warrior fall in the morning: many a hero in the contention of
arms. Here the sword reached betimes the heart of my son: it was
Egill deprived Agnar of life. He was a youth, who never knew what it was
to fear.

[XVIII]

We fought with swords, at Skioldunga. We kept our words: we carved out
with our weapons a plenteous banquet for the wolves of the
sea† A poetical name
for the fishes of prey.. The ships were all besmeared
with crimson, as if for many days the maidens had brought and
poured forth wine. All rent was the mail in the clash of arms.

[XIX]

We fought with swords, when Harold fell. I saw him strugling in the
twilight of death; that young chief so proud of his flowing
locks† He means Harold
Harfax king of Norway.— Harfax
(synonymous to our English Fairfax)
signifies Fair-locks.Percy,
following Ole Worm, refers to Harold I (called
“Fairhair”) of Norway (Haraldr hárfagri, c. 840–933).
However, there is no legend mentioning Ragnar
killing Harold, who would also have lived nearly a
century too late for the two men to meet in
battle. The appellation must refer to King Aurn, a
Gaelic ruler of the Western Isles, whose name is
mentioned in the original.: he who
spent his mornings among the young maidens: he who loved to
converse with the handsome widows. ****

[XX]

We fought with swords: we fought three kings in the isle of Lindis. Few
had reason to rejoice that day. Many fell into the jaws of the
wild-beasts. The hawk and the wolf tore the flesh of the dead: they
departed glutted with their prey. The blood of the Irish fell
plentifully into the ocean, during the time of that slaughter.

[XXI]

We fought with swords, at the isle of Onlug. The uplifted weapon bit the
shields. The gilded lance grated on the mail. The traces of that
fight will be seen for ages. There kings marched up to the play of
arms. The mores of the sea were stained with blood. The lances appeared
like flying dragons.

[XXII]

We fought with swords. Death is the happy portion of the brave† The northern warriors
thought none were intitled to Elizium, but such as died in
battle, or underwent a violent death., for he stands
the foremost against the storm of weapons. He, who flies from
danger, often bewails his miserable life. Yet how difficult is it
to rouze up a coward to the play of arms? The dastard feels no heart in
his bosom.

[XXIII]

We fought with swords. Young men should march up to the conflict of arms:
man should meet man and never give way. In this hath always
consisted the nobility of the warrior. He, who aspires to the love
of his mistress, ought to be dauntless in the clash of arms.

[XXIV]

We fought with swords. Now I find for certain that we are drawn along by
fate. Who can evade the decrees of destiny? Could I have thought
the conclusion of my life reserved for Ella; when almost expiring
I shed torrents of blood? When I launched forth my ships into the deep?
When in the Scottish gulphs I gained large spoils for the
wolves?

[XXV]

We fought with swords: this fills me still with joy, because I know a
banquet is preparing by the father of the gods. Soon, in the
splendid hall of Odin, we (shall drink Beer† Beer and Mead were the only nectar of the northern nations.
Odin alone of all the gods was supposed to drink Wine.
Vid. Bartholin. out of the
sculls of our enemies.
One of the most striking images in
Worm’s translation was the phrase ex
concavis crateribus craniorum (“the hollow
cavity of the skulls”). These lines were annotated with
the comment: Sperabant heroes se in aula Othini
bibituros ex craniis eorum quos occiderant
(“The heroes hoped they would drink in Odin’s hall
from the skulls of those they had killed”). This
interpretation was based on the misconstruction of a kenning, i.e. a metaphorical compound
phrase forming the basis of much skaldic poetry. The Old
Norse ór bjúgviðum
hausa [literally, “from the curved wood of
heads”] is simply a substitution for drinking vessels
made from animal bone. This misunderstanding came to play an
unwarranted role in the perception of Viking culture, as
this line was often quoted. A brave man shrinks not
at death. I shall utter no repining words as I approach the palace of
the gods.
Odin’s Valhalla. The poem
remains somewhat of an aberration in respect to the tradition of
brave heroes going to Valhalla, since only a few cases in
the whole body of Old Norse literature point to a non-battle
death as making the hero eligible for a place in
Valhalla.

[XXVI]

We fought with swords. O that the sons of Aslauga† Aslauga was his second wife, whom he
married after the death of Thora. knew; O that my
children knew the sufferings of their father! that numerous
serpents filled with poison tear me to pieces! Soon would they be here:
soon would they wage bitter war with their swords. I gave a mother
to my children from whom they inherit a valiant heart.

[XVII]

We fought with swords. Now I touch on my last moments. I receive a deadly
hurt from the viper. A serpent inhabits the hall of my heart. Soon
mall my sons black their swords in the blood of Ella. They wax red
with fury: they burn with rage. Those gallant youths will not rest till
they have avenged their father.

[XXVIII]

We fought with swords. Battles fifty and one have been fought under my
banners. From my early youth I learnt to dye my sword in crimson:
I never yet could find a king more valiant than myself. The gods
now invite me to them. Death is not to be lamented.

[XXIX]

‘Tis with joy I cease. The goddesses of destiny are come to fetch
me. Odin hath sent them from the habitation of the gods. I mail be
joyfully received into the highest seat; I mall quaff full goblets among
the gods. The hours of my life are past away. I die laughing. In the
original, Ragnar’s concluding line, læjandi skalk deyja, literally translates as
“laughing I shall die”. These famous last
words were often used to epitomize the idea of northern
death-defiance. An illustration of this is S.
Ferguson’s translation in Blackwood’s Edinburgh
Magazine 33 (1833): 915, which emphasized
Ragnar’s celebration of death by introducing an
emphatically jubilant interjection (with no basis in either
Norse or Latin source texts): “E’en on my
dying day,/ I’ll laugh one other laughter yet – /
Yet ere I pass away, Hurrah – hurrah –
hurrah!”